To celebrate the eightieth anniversary of its founding the Nihon Ki-in has established a Go Hall of Fame, analogous to those of various sports in the United States.
Honinbo Sansa
Honinbo Dosaku
Honinbo Shusaku
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Bob McGuigan: These four obviously are important in the history of Japanese Go and Go in general. Any speculation on who might next be chosen for this hall of fame? And what about great figures outside of Japan?
Charles Ought to be Go Seigen. It would be surprising if it was, though. Perhaps a balanced ticket of Shusai and Segoe?
Chris Hayashida: Granted, these four were very important in the founding of go in Japan, but how about inducting people that are still living? It would be a shame if Go Seigen was inducted into the Hall of Fame post mortem.
I think Kitani Minoru and Go Seigen should be inducted into the Hall of Fame because of their influence during the Shin Fuseki era.
I doubt that figures outside of Japan will be honored (and Go has a strike against him, being a foreigner.) Unfortunately, there is still a bias against foreigners in Japan. I suspect that the next year or two will still be inducting people from the Golden Age. Honinbo Shuwa comes to mind, and maybe Honinbo Jowa as well.
Harpreet: Overlooking Go Seigen would just be an embarassment for the whole Hall of Fame idea. They won't make that mistake. It would be too glaring especially when including Kitani as he will surely have to be in there at some point. Besides Go Seigen is an honorary member of the Nihon Kiin, no? Shuho and Shusai will have to be in there since they both contributed greatly to the move away from the traditional Go Houses which eventually led to the Nihon Kiin. I wonder what more interesting or unexpected names we might see.
I'd say Doseki, Jowa, Genan, Shusai, Wu, and Kitani are givens. My largely random thought would be that they'll wait through another group of ancients, then Wu and Kitani will be inducted simultaneously. --SikeElegy
Wonder if it will be like the Rock 'n' Roll Hall equivalent (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductees_of_the_Rock_and_Roll_Hall_of_Fame); and in latter years we'll be sitting around wondering whose idea it was to admit Billy Joel with Paul McCartney, or Queen with Steely Dan (mutandis mutatis)? Charles
Bill: Del Shannon??? Can Pat Boone be far behind? ;-)